From seventh grade on, I attended a Lutheran school in New York City where the students were predominantly White. Similar feelings seemed to prevail back in the early sixties as they do now, but surprisingly subdued given the era.

These aren’t “bad” kids in the video. They don’t intend to be mean or judgmental, and definitely not racist. They’re just average kids, and most of them probably have great parents, just like Mikayla’s. That’s what makes the content of this video so shocking.

The Modus Operandi of republicans is to lie, distort & depend upon the likes of Rush & John Sunnu to deliver their racist & divisive message. Hopefully, voters are now aware that now our democracy is in jeopardy & come out in historic numbers this November!!!

If your [Saturday] afternoon could use a moment of near-perfect stillness and quiet along with a big dollop of cute to go with it, have we got a video for you. In this video, one of two intertwined kittens discovers that his bunkmate missed a spot or two in their bedtime bath routine.

I thought this was poignant enough to share with my friends here at TFC. It’s a couple of days old but the sentiment is timeless…

Andrew Breitbart – the guy you were just watching – died last night at the age of 43. Andrew lived in a paranoid, libertarian, I-got-mine-and-screw-you world. Andrew was the perfect right-wing front man. I know – he was on my show many times over the years – and never failed to push that cruel, Libertarian line that anybody who couldn’t claw their way to the top didn’t deserve any help from the rest of us in any way. It’s really quite sad that Andrew never realized that we’re all in this together – that every individual clod of humanity is part of the continent of humanity.

As John Donne wrote in 1624 in his Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions…

Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill that he doesn’t know that it tolls for him No man is an island, Andrew, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main If a clod be washed away by the sea, Andrew, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a house of your friend’s, Andrew, or of your own were Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind Therefore, Andrew, don’t ask for whom the bell tolls It tolls for thee.

Chris Hayes’ new show on MSNBC provides a rare space for the expansive, non-partisan debates we need

Waking up at 4 a.m. is rarely enjoyable, and arising at that unspeakable hour to appear on a cable news show is particularly painful. In such situations, you feel as if you’re dragging yourself out of bed only to be treated like a canine in a dogfight, with the typical show pitting you in a contrived death match against another guest who is your equally angry, equally mangy opposite. That, or you’re simply asked to play the yes-man — the Ed McMahon to the host’s Johnny Carson.

Needless to say, I’m not a fan of most cable news because I find this format mind-numbing, uninformative and tedious (and cable news’ declining ratings over the last year prove I’m not alone). So when I was asked to appear on MSNBC last Saturday morning, my initial thought was, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

But then I realized it was a new show hosted by Chris Hayes, a journalist whose work I’ve long admired. So I said yes. And crack-of-dawn fatigue aside, I’m glad I did, because to my surprise, I ended up getting the chance to participate in one of the best television programs on the air.

“Up With Chris Hayes,” which broadcasts Saturday and Sunday mornings, purposely rejects the manufactured red-versus-blue mallet that bludgeons every issue into partisan terms. Instead, the program’s host is creating a space for more expansive discussions with voices typically deemed too unconventional, provocative or dangerous to be allowed anywhere near a television set.